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New Public Transit Strategies for Dense Cities

January 23, 2013

The research of Prof. Peter Furth and Ph.D. student Burak Cesme has helped fuel an editorial in the Boston Globe promoting solutions to help decrease the slow transit times of buses in cities. Their research has put forward ideas such as signal prioritization, in which stop lights are able to be controlled by signals emanating from buses to ensure traffic lights stay green, thus dramatically cutting down on the travel times of the buses and minimizing congestion in the cities. The work of Prof. Stephanie Pollack in the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy was also referenced, highlighting the detrimental effect of long, slow commutes in Boston and other dense cities as a drain on the economic and social well-being of the city.

CAMD/CEE Assistant Professor David Fannon is working with Michelle Laboy and Peter Wiederspahn from the School of Architecture to design buildings that can stand the test of time and can be easily converted to meet future needs.

CEE Chair and Professor Jerome Hajjar and ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir are collaborating on a research project for post-disaster assessment of critical infrastructure such as bridges using small unmanned aircraft systems.